Zhang Jing, a reporter of "Lookout Oriental Weekly"
The northern part of Hong Kong will be developed into a livable and workable metropolitan area
The banks of the Shenzhen River ushered in a new outlet.
On October 6, hong Kong SAR Chief Executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor proposed in the last policy address of the current HKSAR Government to build the Northern Hong Kong Metropolitan Area, covering an area of 300 square kilometers, accommodating 2.5 million people, increasing the number of jobs to about 650,000, and building an international innovation and technology center in the Northern Metropolitan Area. On the same day, the HKSAR Government announced the Development Strategy for the Northern Metropolitan Area (hereinafter referred to as the "Development Strategy").
The "Development Strategy" proposes that the spatial pattern of "twin cities and three circles" will be formed in the future, and anecdotal comments say that the "strongest metropolitan area" is about to be born.
The proposal to build a northern metropolitan area shows the world for the first time the grand plan to expand the spatial layout of development after Hong Kong's return to the motherland. This is a plan that spans a 20-year development cycle, and it will also be a long-term plan that spans the terms of office of the chief executive of the HKSAR.
Carrie Lam said the Northern Metropolitan Area is the most active area for Urban Construction and Population Growth in Hong Kong over the next 20 years. With seven cross-border land crossings, the zone is the most important area in Hong Kong to promote the integrated development of Hong Kong and Shenzhen and connect with the Greater Bay Area.
Wen Yajing, deputy director of the Institute of Hong Kong, Macao and Regional Development of the China (Shenzhen) Comprehensive Development Research Institute, said that the construction of the northern metropolitan area of Hong Kong is a bold strategic plan that crosses administrative boundaries, which is of great significance to promoting the integration of Shenzhen and Hong Kong, the synergy between Guangdong and Hong Kong, and the better integration of Hong Kong into the overall situation of national development.
Why develop the North?
Most people who have been to Hong Kong are familiar with the Victoria Harbour area ( hereinafter referred to as Victoria Harbour ) , but their understanding of the north of Hong Kong is relatively vague.
Due to historical reasons, Hong Kong Island and Kowloon on both sides of Victoria Harbour have become the focus of Hong Kong's development, and Hong Kong's status as an international financial center is based on Hong Kong Island, which has the densest density of skyscrapers in Hong Kong, the highest population density, and concentrates more than 90% of Hong Kong's population and business.
In contrast, there are still many development lag areas in the north.
The planned Northern Metropolitan Area includes two local administrative districts, Yuen Long District and North District, including newly developed and mature towns such as Tin Shui Wai, Yuen Long and Fanling/Sheung Shui and their adjacent rural suburbs, and there are 6 new development zones and development hubs at different stages of planning and construction, including Gudong North/Fanling North, Flood Bridge/Ha Cun, Yuen Long South, Tan Tin/Lok Ma Chau, Man Kam Du and New Territories North New Town.
Liu Guoxun, vice chairman of the Development Affairs Committee of the Legislative Council of Hong Kong, said in an interview with the media that from a geographical point of view, the northern district and parts of Yuen Long are connected to Shenzhen by the Shenzhen River, and the northern metropolitan area has 7 cross-border ports, of which 4 ports are cross-border land ports, directly bordering Shenzhen, which is the most important area in Hong Kong to promote cooperation between Shenzhen and Hong Kong and connect with the Greater Bay Area.
At present, the development of Hong Kong's Victoria Harbour area has been highly saturated. The high housing prices are driving up the overall cost of Hong Kong society, and it is urgent to open up new development space to support future development.
Over the past half century, in order to meet the needs of Hong Kong's population growth and economic development, the Hong Kong government has carried out a lot of urban planning work, including the early new towns such as Tsuen Wan, Sha Tin, Tai Po and Tuen Mun, and even the new development areas such as Gu Dong North/Fanling North and Hong Kong Bridge/Xia Cun in recent years. Although these planning and developments have achieved certain results, there are still shortcomings, such as failing to achieve the goal of work-life balance and self-sufficiency.
What changes will the construction of the Northern Metropolitan Area bring to Hong Kong? Yang Yuchuan, chief macroeconomist of BGI Securities and visiting professor of the Hong Kong Institute of Finance and Management, believes that the metropolitan area will play an important role in two aspects: one is to solve the urgent needs of people's livelihood, including housing; the other is to help Hong Kong's industrial transformation and upgrading.
The Development Strategy points out that Hong Kong needs to go beyond the traditional "new town development" thinking and spatial concept, and fully integrate the northern New Territories region adjacent to Shenzhen into a northern metropolitan area. It can be said that the "intimate interaction" on both sides of the Shenzhen River is the key to the integration and development of Hong Kong and Shenzhen.
Shenzhen River Linkage
Since the reform and opening up, Hong Kong and the Pearl River Delta cities, especially Shenzhen, have maintained frequent interactions.
Shenzhen is Hong Kong's land gateway to the hinterland of the Greater Bay Area. Over the past 40 years, Hong Kong and Shenzhen have built seven land ports and connected transportation infrastructure from west to east, enabling the two places to be conditionally connected across the Hou bay, Dapeng Bay and Shenzhen rivers, thus forming a spatial pattern of "two cities and three circles".
Carrie Lam stressed that the establishment of the spatial concept of "twin cities and three circles" is conducive to the Hong Kong and Shenzhen governments jointly promoting close cooperation between the two places in the economy, infrastructure, innovation and technology, people's livelihood and ecological environment, and exerting strong and strong cooperation to produce the benefits of "1+1>2".
Once the Northern Metropolitan Area is formed, Hong Kong will form a new development pattern of "North Innovation and Technology, South Finance", located in the Victoria Harbour Metropolitan Area in the central area of Hong Kong Island, with the international financial center as the main positioning. The northern metropolitan area is positioned as an international innovation and technology center.
A metropolitan area is not an area delimited by administrative boundaries, but a large-scale and dynamic urban space formed by the interaction of geographical characteristics, economic functions, ecological environment and development policies. The concept existed before Hong Kong's return to the motherland, which used to refer to more than 200 square kilometres of hong Kong Island, Kowloon, Tsuen Wan and Kwai Tsing districts, covering about 4.3 million residents. With the announcement of the Development Strategy, Hong Kong's metropolitan area is about to expand.
Wen Yajing analyzed that in terms of space, the northern metropolitan area covers the port economic belt from west to east and a deeper hinterland, which is conducive to giving play to the leading role of port economic coverage.
In terms of infrastructure construction, it plans to build 5 rail transit lines, 4 of which are closely related to Shenzhen, which is conducive to jointly building a world-class metropolitan area with Shenzhen.
In terms of industrial development, the northern metropolitan area attaches great importance to the development of scientific and technological innovation industries, and plans to build Xintian Science and Technology City to provide a greater physical space for the development of Hong Kong's scientific and technological innovation industry, and at the same time is conducive to forming a coordinated and interactive development pattern with Shenzhen's scientific and technological innovation industry.
"Shenzhen and Hong Kong are both core cities in the Greater Bay Area, and 'Shenzhen + Hong Kong' has always been a combination of '1+1>2'. The special geographical location of the construction of the northern metropolitan area can be regarded as an 'expansion increment' for Hong Kong and Shenzhen in a sense, which is conducive to Shenzhen and Hong Kong in terms of land space, industrial development, and people's livelihood interaction. Wen Yajing said.
Specifically, in her policy address, Carrie Lam stressed that "re-industrialization" should take root in Hong Kong and complement the development of innovation and technology in Shenzhen and the Greater Bay Area, so that innovation and technology can become the driving force of Hong Kong's new economy and become an international innovation and technology center under the outline of the 14th Five-Year Plan.
Hong Kong should link up with Shenzhen this time to develop innovative technology, and Xintian Science and Technology City will become the focus of the development of the northern metropolitan area and the new momentum of Hong Kong's economic development. Hong Kong has high hopes for it, calling it "Hong Kong's Silicon Valley" in its Development Strategy.
In recent years, Hong Kong has been laying the groundwork for the development of innovative technology industries and the promotion of re-industrialization. Many universities in Hong Kong have strong basic research strength, and through transformation and application, they can provide sustainable development impetus for Hong Kong's re-industrialization. According to the newly released QS World University Rankings 2022, Hong Kong has five universities in the world's top 100 with the strength of one city. As a national economic center city of Shenzhen, shenzhen has developed high-tech industries and active transformation of scientific research achievements, and has many key laboratories in many countries. The two are highly complementary in scientific and technological innovation industries. The integration of Hong Kong and Shenzhen will open up more new possibilities in the field of science and technology innovation.
Song Ding, deputy director of the China Urban Economic Expert Committee, analyzed that Hong Kong is a free port, the rules and regulations are benchmarked against the international, and it is a "super contact" that can provide a natural international testing ground for Shenzhen enterprises to "go global". Shenzhen's scientific and technological innovation industry is booming, the application transformation ability is strong, the manufacturing foundation is good, and the labor cost and living cost are relatively low compared to Hong Kong, which can provide support for the application and transformation of Hong Kong's scientific research achievements. In the future, Shenzhen and Hong Kong need to make good use of their respective strengths, accelerate the in-depth docking of rules and mechanisms, and support the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area to become a domestic and international dual-cycle fulcrum and a model of national institutional opening-up.
In the 2021 Policy Address, the HKSAR Government said that the HKSAR Government will build a livable, workable and tourist-friendly metropolitan area in northern Hong Kong, and open up an additional 600 hectares of land for residential and industrial purposes, so as to help Hong Kong better integrate into the overall situation of national development
It is both an opportunity and a challenge
The construction of the northern metropolitan area and the construction of a spatial pattern of "two cities and three circles" are not overnight. Asked by reporters how much time the development plan will take, Carrie Lam said that although it may take 20 years to complete the northern metropolitan area, any government should follow the trajectory. "We're talking about a vision."
For Hong Kong, specific to the level of construction promotion, it will face no small challenge.
"The Northern Metropolitan Area has put forward a lot of bold ideas, as well as some groundbreaking measures for the SAR government, so it faces the problem of incongruity and conflict with Hong Kong's existing planning policies, and the policy aspects need to be revised urgently." In addition, the HKSAR Government also needs to improve administrative efficiency, accelerate construction procedures, and increase communication and consultation with the Shenzhen Municipal Government and the Guangdong Provincial Government on cross-regional cooperation matters. Wen Yajing said.
For metropolitan areas, the first step is to increase the supply of housing and land.
Tight housing supply has plagued Hong Kong for years, and in order to attract and retain more people to develop in the northern metropolitan area, it is necessary to increase the use of housing land.
A number of planned or planned developments in the Northern Metropolitan Area are expected to provide about 350,000 residential units, while the Northern Metropolitan Area can open up an additional 600 hectares of land for residential and industrial use, with an estimated 165,000 to 186,000 residential units available. Together with the existing 390,000 residential units in Yuen Long and North Districts, the total number of residential units in the entire Northern Metropolitan Area will reach 905,000 to 926,000, accommodating about 2.5 million people.
As for land supply, the Policy Address points out that the HKSAR Government will continue to increase land supply in a "multi-pronged manner" and promote a number of New Territories New Development Zone projects, Tung Chung Tung and The Reclamation Of JiaoQiao Islands. In the past two years, the HKSAR Government has invoked the relevant regulations to recover 90 hectares of land in the New Territories, and it is expected that 700 hectares of land will be recovered in the next few years.
Some researchers believe that the hong Kong land development approval process is complicated, and whether it can scientifically coordinate the development process and speed up the speed of land development is one of the tests facing the SAR government.
In addition, the construction of the metropolitan area will inevitably involve a large number of interest redistribution problems of all parties, and may also encounter a lot of resistance.
"From an empirical point of view, the economic development of the areas located within the boundaries of administrative divisions is largely subject to administrative divisions. The main difficulty in the construction of the northern metropolitan area lies in the constraint of administrative divisions, and whether this constraint can be broken and whether economic integration across administrative regions can be achieved is of great importance. Liu Zhengshan, deputy secretary-general of the China Urban Development Research Association, said.
Source: Xinhua News Agency